Imagine you’re a ninth grade student and your English teacher gives you a short story writing assignment. What do you do?

Most people start writing immediately, without any clear storyline in mind. They would what you call ‘go with the flow’. Others sit down and plan the entire plot first and then begin. What I want you to do is browse through some short stories on the same topic. Suppose your broad topic is sci-fi and you want to write something on Mars. Search for stories about characters lost in Mars and read them carefully, understanding the plot.

And then throw it into your mental trashcan.

Yes, you heard me right. All those stories you just read are all cliched. So if you thought of writing something related to those, forget it. That will only cut down your marks on ‘Originality’. For example, read this story:

Did You Say MARS?!

“But Mum, I don’t want to live in Malaysia,” I wailed, dragging my suitcase into our new house. We had just shifted from Delhi to Malaysia due to my father’s job, and I had had to leave all of my friends and memories there. Coming to Malaysia was a big change; one that I had opposed since the beginning.

“Stop complaining Myra,” my mother sighed, tired from the long flight. “Why don’t you go to your room and start unpacking?”

Scowling, I dragged my suitcase into the smallest bedroom, which had just become mine. Kicking the suitcase into a corner, I stopped and sized up the place. Long black curtains were draped in front of a wall-length window, casting a dark shadow over me. Aside from a rickety old cupboard, the room was bare.

Rolling my eyes, I sauntered over to the closet and flung it open. A wave of dust rolled out and I doubled over, coughing. A moment later, when the particles had settled and I could see again, I leaned over and peered into the closet.

Instead of a plain wooden floor, a swirl of red and black greeted me. The sight was mesmerizing, almost magical. Plumes of black smoke rose from the corners of the tiny whirlpool, giving it an unearthly appearance.

Amazed, I forgot about my problems and dipped my toe into the pool. The touch felt cool, and I lowered my leg, savouring the feeling. Suddenly, I lost my grip on the closet’s door and fell fully inside, disappearing into the whirlpool.

Screaming in panic, I fell and fell in the endless chasm, engulfed by mists of scarlet. The fall ended as quickly as it had begun, and I slowly opened my eyes as I landed on something soft.

Or, looking down, someone.

I screamed again and slid off the plump little creature I had fallen on. It rolled over and stood up on its short legs, pointing a stubby finger in my direction. It started blabbering away in a strange language, and even though I only understood one word, it was enough to turn my blood cold.

“Did you say Mars?”

I stared at the creature incredulously, only then realizing where I was standing. The plain ceiling of my house was replaced by a vast blanket of darkness, and the corners of a large crater towered over me. Swallowing a mouthful of bile, I asked the creature, “Am I on Ma-”
Wait. If I was on Mars… “How am I still alive?” I shrieked at the little thing, standing up for emphasis.

As if triggered by my words, I staggered, suddenly feeling woozy. The creature, who had been watching me placidly, grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. Immediately, I felt better.

That’s when I understood. “There’s a layer of oxygen on Mars!” I exclaimed. “That’s how you survive here. This is brilliant! How has no one discovered this before? I must tell ISRO! Or NASA! Or…”

My gaze drifted to a blue sphere rising above the walls of the crater. A pang of homesickness hit me as I watched Earth, any excitement I had been feeling overcome with dread.

Turning to the creature, I asked, “Can you take me back there?” I pointed at Earth. My heart raced as the creature grumbled something under his breath. He reached out and tapped my forehead three times. That one gesture transported me millions of miles away from Mars, back to my bedroom.

Scrambling to get out of the closet, I leapt up and raced to my phone, dialing ISRO’s base.

“Hello? My name is Myra and I live in Malaysia. You won’t believe what I found.”

Five minutes later, I put down the gadget, smiling broadly. Just then, my mother entered the room. “Oof, Myra, are you on your phone again? School starts tomorrow, go and study!”

I obeyed, stilling grinning. Suddenly, my problems in Malaysia didn’t seem so big anymore.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How many of you predicted the ending while reading? How many of you thought, “Well obviously she goes back to Earth. Who even cares about Mars? Boring.”

That is what you call a cliché story. Foreseeable, boring and a complete waste of time. Now, you want to learn how not to do that. You want to make your story, no matter how long or short, a gripping and worth-while read. But most of all, you want an A+ on your assignment. 😉

So here’s the trick. Whenever your mind gives you an idea you already read about, throw it out. Your story needs to have a major problem, a strong protagonist and loads of conflict. Would you like to read about a girl who got stuck on Mars or a daring heroine who was kidnapped from her space crew by aliens and taken to their headquarters to provide them information on how to annihilate the human race?

We both know your answer. You’ve heard this a million times and I’m telling it to you once more: Think outside the box! Imagine your heroine was running out of oxygen. There is not a human soul in sight for millions of miles and she will die if she doesn’t answer the aliens. What if her oxygen runs out before she makes her decision? What if the aliens bribe her with a longer life in exchange for information? What will she do then? What if-

You can fill that sentence with any number of answers. If there are an infinite taken possibilities, there are an infinite more to be discovered.

And remember: anything CANNOT happen. A lot of people tell you that anything can happen in your stories, but they are wrong. You can’t have your heroine turn out to be a powerful witch and escaping the aliens through magic in a sci-fi story. That would not only be super weird but would also lower your grade.

Another thing is to stick to the word limit. When I was eleven, I had to re-write four essays and stories just because I wrote extra (That was my fault. I wrote three hundred words for a fifty word short story). Although word limits may seem like an annoying way to restrict your writing capability, they are actually pretty useful in improving your writing. They help you learn to write out of your comfort zone, and actually expand your skills rather than binding them.

Anyway, the major tip here is to read others’ stories and not write about the same thing. Come up with something completely different (keep it related to the topic, though) and you’ll have your original A+ short story in no time.